Published 12:11 am, Tuesday, April 19, 2011

According to a suddenly controversial set of safety regulations, Wiffle Ball and other time-honored diversions such as Red Rover, horseshoes, kickball and tag could be deemed sufficiently dangerous to require state regulation under an expanded definition of "day camps."

Last week, state Sen. Patty Ritchie sent a letter to state Health Commissioner Nirav Shah in which she argued that communities that have operated summer recreation programs for decades "will now be unable to provide these same programs due to added staffing expense and permit fees."

Ritchie, a North Country Republican, urged Shah to hold off enforcing the new regulations.

"I don't think many of our programs fall into the definition (of a day camp)," added Assemblywoman Addie Russell, a Democrat from the same region.

But whether the new set of regulations is the latest example of a nanny state run amok or a fixable bureaucratic bungle remains to be seen.

The affair started innocently enough in 2009 when the Legislature passed, almost unanimously, a law designed to apply the same safety standards for indoor camps that have long been in use for outdoor day camps.

"This law regulates indoor activities with risk (activities) such as gymnastics," said Gene DeSantis, a lobbyist who helped promote the bill.

At the time, DeSantis said, officials in Westchester County were complaining that indoor sports camps -- including those devoted to physical activity such as soccer -- operated under a regulatory loophole: They didn't fall under the Health Department's definition of a day camp. The 2009 law was supposed to close that loophole, and put all camp programs on an equal regulatory footing.

But complaints started coming in from operators of what are known as "drop-in" programs operated by towns or villages. "When you get a letter from the Department of Health telling you that you now have to comply, there was a little concern," said Russell.

For example, the Jefferson County village of Philadelphia operates a drop-in program that periodically take kids on a bus to a swimming pool at the nearby Keewaydin State Park. Under the new rules, the program would be deemed a day camp even though the state pool has the requisite safety features, such as lifeguards.

Russell says she's crafted a bill would exempt municipal drop-in programs from the new regulation.

Clearly, swimming has some risk -- but do activities such as Wiffle Ball or tag fit the definition of a day camp activity that poses a risk?

Health Department spokeswoman Diane Mathis stressed that those games are on a long list of activities compiled by the agency that might help define a day camp.

"It's only meant to be used as general guidance," she said.

The new rules, Mathis added, have no impact on existing outdoor programs, which are already regulated.

Moreover, she said, the Health Department has a public comment period that's open until May 16.

The agency hasn't yet started enforcing the rules, which should start by summer camping season.